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Reviews
The Morning Show (2019)
Learn from Schitts Creek
The first series of TMS was great! The second series - doh! Clumsy, clumsy, clumsy use of the gay couple theme - these writers need to look to Schitts Creek to see how to introduce something like this. Writers of TMS have all the subtly of a sledgehammer. Why can't at least two episodes be used to warm the theme up - get people considering the possibilities of this relationship before the writers throw the couple into bed together! Really has knocked my enjoyment of this show which I first thought was very well done - but I am now grinding my teeth in annoyance at the hamfistedness of it all. What a shame...
World on Fire (2019)
Up to episode 5 on season 1 and still not impressed.
Up to episode 5 on season 1 and still not impressed. Lesley Manville is great but the attention to detail on things like soldiers uniforms, the interactions between officers and other ranks has clearly not been researched - and it's not like there is no information on this available in shed loads. This slap dash approach to a period drama, for that is what it is, is SO irritating! Trying to capture the whole of the events like the evacuation of Dunkirk in tiny little segments is also ridiculous. Why don't producers of these dramas focus a whole episode on an event like this. It might provide the opportunity to develop the characters a bit. - which would not be a bad thing...
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a #@%! (2023)
Oh dear...
The author has clearly been exposed ( albeit very briefly) to the Stoics and Buddhism) - but if you are really interested in how not to 'Give A @$#! Read the sutras or Marcus Aurelius - don't waste your time on Mark - but good on him for getting some insight and realising that life is a struggle. The dialogue in the documentary is very repetitive - keeps on about you are not entitled and life is a struggle etc etc. His anecdote about the friend who died should have been right at the beginning of the documentary- but instead it was right at the end - very strange sequencing of the life events that changed him - because it was clearly this event that made him realise that &¥% happens!
The Capture (2019)
Good but...
Good plot and mostly well acted - with the exception of Holliday Grainger who is a bit too hysterical for my liking. Her on screen boss DCI Gemma Garland is superbly acted by Lia Williams - giving off just the right amount of hauteur and being just a bit sinister. Ben Miles always good value too! Some of the plot is a bit far fetched but it is clearly closer to reality than we may all think. Not sure there is too much more to say about this other than a good conspiracy thriller one can watch when you are having your tea (except not if you have young kids cos there is quite a lot of swearing!!!
Benediction (2021)
Lacking a heartbeat
Had expectations for this but not fulfilled - too many long drawn out pauses meant the film never had a heartbeat. Good (but not great) performances - and mixed up sequences that didn't make sense...
Vigil (2021)
Poor characterisations
Lazy writing - good opportunity missed. Some good actors in this but given rubbish dialogue. No research appears to have been done on how officers and other ranks behave towards each other in the Navy.
Ammonite (2020)
Missed opportunity
This could have been an interesting take on a possible romantic relationship between two women. Instead we get the usual nonsense of hot sex between two women - but this time as a period piece. Story is a load of old codswallop - Mary Annings real life would have been a much more interesting subject for this film - but Francis Lee copped out and went for the sex angle - typical bloke thing to do..
The Valhalla Murders (2019)
Lazy TV making
Started promisingly but the quality of the script quickly deteriorated becoming cliche ridden